The suburbs of Seattle call to all types of people looking to escape city live. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Seattle to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Seattle ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Seattle area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the suburbs to live up to Seattle proper, although Mercer Island certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Seattle are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 54 biggest suburbs of Seattle to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Washington lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Seattle in terms of quality of life.
What’s the worst suburb of Seattle? Tukwila ranks as the worst suburb of Seattle for 2023 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Seattle that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don’t blame the messenger.
Or, if you’re thinking of moving to elsewhere in Washington check out the best places in Washington overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Seattle too.
Article Table Of Contents
For more Washington reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Washington
- Cheapest Places To Live In Washington
- Most Dangerous Cities In Washington
The 10 Worst Seattle Suburbs To Live For 2023
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We’ll get the ball rolling with Tukwila, the absolute worst place to live around Seattle according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Tukwila beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 6th worst in the Seattle area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 8th worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Tukwila.
You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
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Welcome to Algona. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 23.8 miles to Seattle. Income levels here are the 14th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $78,040 a year, which doesn’t go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
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Back up the highway we go for the third worst Seattle suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Fife on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Seattle suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in Bremerton, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Seattle suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 10th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Seattle. Remember, we looked at 54 cities for this study.
Bremerton is about 17.9 miles to downtown.
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SeaTac has the distinction of being a Seattle suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, SeaTac has the 7th lowest home values in the metro Seattle area, where the median price is $364,400. To put that into perspective, in Mercer Island, the median income is $250,001, which is the best in the area.
SeaTac has an unemployment rate of 8.21% which ranks 3rd worst.
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Kent has 134,890 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 11.326238631328346%.
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Ah, Tacoma. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Seattle.
It’s the place with the 13th most out of work residents in the Seattle metro area (5.04%).
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Everett is a city about 24.4 miles from Seattle, but Seattle probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You’d be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Everett has the 11th most uninsured people, 5th worst incomes, and has the 16th highest unemployment rate (4.96%) in the entire Seattle metro area.
Homes only cost $394,900 for a reason. That’s cheap for Seattle standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Seattle, then Sumner might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Seattle suburb.
About 5.0% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Seattle suburbs to call home is Auburn.
Located 22.8 miles outside the city, Auburns is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 14th highest unemployment rate (5.0%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Seattle for 2023
To figure out how bad a Seattle suburb is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2017-2021, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Seattle.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 54 suburbs to evaluate around Seattle.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 54 in each category, where 1 was the “worst”.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the “Worst Suburb near Seattle.” We’re lookin’ at you, Tukwila.
Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
Summary: The areas around Seattle where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2023
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Seattle with Tukwila casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Seattle aren’t all bad. Mercer Island takes the cake as the best place to live around Seattle.
- Mercer Island
- Medina
- Sammamish
For more Washington reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In Washington
- Richest Cities In Washington
- Safest Places In Washington
- Worst Places To Live In Washington
Detailed List Of The Worst Seattle Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Tukwila | 21,545 |
2 | Algona | 3,271 |
3 | Fife | 10,869 |
4 | Bremerton | 43,345 |
5 | Seatac | 30,867 |
6 | Kent | 134,890 |
7 | Tacoma | 217,332 |
8 | Everett | 110,438 |
9 | Sumner | 10,545 |
10 | Auburn | 85,306 |
11 | Des Moines | 32,631 |
12 | Federal Way | 99,792 |
13 | Burien | 51,646 |
14 | Port Orchard | 15,315 |
15 | Lynnwood | 38,812 |
16 | Pacific | 7,130 |
17 | Milton | 8,501 |
18 | Snohomish | 10,091 |
19 | North Bend | 7,393 |
20 | Poulsbo | 11,652 |
21 | Renton | 105,313 |
22 | Monroe | 19,879 |
23 | Lake Stevens | 35,135 |
24 | University Place | 34,565 |
25 | Fircrest | 7,109 |
26 | Mountlake Terrace | 21,210 |
27 | Covington | 20,608 |
28 | Bothell | 47,355 |
29 | Shoreline | 58,213 |
30 | Edgewood | 12,132 |
31 | Gig Harbor | 11,505 |
32 | Carnation | 2,219 |
33 | Normandy Park | 6,716 |
34 | Kenmore | 23,556 |
35 | Edmonds | 42,622 |
36 | Maple Valley | 27,643 |
37 | Kirkland | 91,656 |
38 | Mukilteo | 21,409 |
39 | Black Diamond | 5,002 |
40 | Bellevue | 149,365 |
41 | Issaquah | 39,057 |
42 | Newcastle | 12,855 |
43 | Duvall | 8,007 |
44 | Brier | 6,524 |
45 | Woodinville | 13,247 |
46 | Mill Creek | 20,665 |
47 | Redmond | 72,166 |
48 | Bainbridge Island | 24,557 |
49 | Snoqualmie | 13,718 |
50 | Lake Forest Park | 13,529 |
51 | Clyde Hill | 3,118 |
52 | Sammamish | 66,532 |
53 | Medina | 2,928 |
54 | Mercer Island | 25,506 |